PH Customs adopts temporary weekend cargo releasing

The Philippine Bureau of Customs (BOC) has allowed weekend release of shipments to address traffic congestion at the country’s two main international ports.

The measure is temporary and used only to address certain uncontrollable factors. The last time a similar move was applied was in the aftermath of the monsoon disturbance in August.

Manila International Container Port (MICP) collector Ricardo Belmonte and Port of Manila (POM) collector Atty Rogel Gatchalian last week urged importers, brokers and truckers to take advantage of the service.

“We urge all importers, brokers and truckers to file their entries early on the day or during the weekend so we can lighten up our processing load during weekdays,” Belmonte said.

“We have made special representations with Aduana-based banks to accept payment for duties even during weekends to enable us to facilitate release of cargoes during these days. So I am asking all importers to please avail of our weekend service to solve the congestion problem at the POM,” Gatchalian said.

The decision to adopt weekend cargo releasing was announced at a media forum last week and came at the heels of a planned transport strike at MICP and POM led by the Aduana Truckers Association. Association president Mary Zapata has complained of severe traffic congestion at the ports resulting in delays and higher overheads.

In the same forum, PPA said it is also trying to transfer all domestic calls from the South Harbor to the North Port to further decongest POM.

For its part, International Container Terminal Services Inc said it has added eight rubber-tired gantries to augment 35 RTGs in order to facilitate faster unloading of containers from ships.